Red Hat is taking a business-as-usual stance in the face of renewed rumblings from Microsoft's Steve Ballmer over the need for Red Hat Linux users to pay up. Ballmer has repeatedly claimed that Microsoft IP is found in Linux. "People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to eventually compensate us," said Ballmer at a Microsoft event last week in London. But Red Hat itself has adopted a stance that keeps it above the Microsoft patent fray. "At this point, please reference our previous statements on this topic," said a Red Hat spokesman contacted Tuesday about Microsoft's statements on Red Hat Linux users. The spokesman pointed out a Red Hat blog posted "after the last FUD statements from Microsoft" in May, she said. Shuttleworth agrees.

October 1, 2007 : Brad Brunell (former General Manager for Microsoft's Intellectual Property Licensing and former Senior Director with responsibility for digital media licensing (making deals with Disney and Time Warner) and setting up the DRM-patent licensing company known as Content Guard and he is also former Group Manager in Microsoft managing business groups responsible for Microsoft's DRM technologies) joins Acacia Research Technologies as Senior Vice President.

October 8, 2007 : It is reported that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, threatens Red Hat with patent lawsuits in the beginning of October 2007.

October 9, 2007: IP Innovation, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation, sues Red Hat and Novell over a patent for implementing "sticky windows" on multiple workspaces.

Hmm... That pattern says everything.

They are not going after Microsoft. Microsoft does not have such a thing implemented, though the XP power toy is a possible target - except Microsoft controls the company completely.